So I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my 1st gen (2002) prius and after 2 days, I'm not having much luck. Here's what's happened... For about a month or 2, I've been having problems with my battery intermittently dying. Sometimes sitting for a couple days, other times just sitting over night. Because I haven't had the money to purchase a new one; however, I've been able to easily jump it. It wouldn't even need to charge, I could immediately start it after connecting the cables and not have any more problems... I recently drove up from California to Idaho with my parents. They hauled it part of the way on a trailer and then we parked it at their house. When we were backing the car off the trailer it stalled out and the red triangle came on, because the electric motor wasn't strong enough to move over the snow. I turned it off, waited a few seconds and then turned it back on. Started up and was able to drive it. Then i parked it for about 5 days and went to go start it. It would start fine, but the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) would stall out after about 20 seconds (which a lot of people have described in their sticky throttle problems). Finally i just turned the heater on to keep the engine running and put it in drive, worked fine. I pulled it into the garage to pack up some stuff before I started the trip back to California. I assumed being inside and a little warmer also help the car start. I let it set overnight before I went to leave. When i went to start it up again, the batter was dead (i figured it would be). I put a slow charge on it (2amp) and waited for it to charge back up. Went to start it up, powered on, console came on, Ready light came on and but when the ICE tries to start, but then doesn't catch...The best way I could describe it is kinda like when the starter in a traditional car doesn't fully engage the engine, unfortunately with a hybrid I can't keep trying to turn it over. I'm thinking the engine may not be firing since it doesn't start up... In my attempts to start the car, I've seen a couple of different things: 1) Everything goes normal until the ICE goes to engage, fails, the red triangle comes on, check engine light. 2) Ready light comes on, ICE does not attempt to start, and ALL lights in the dash console come on. 3) The Ready light flashes 2 or 3 times and then nothing. 4) The ready light comes on, makes a loud clicking noise, then nothing and the triangle, check engine, turtle lights come on. I'm really at a lost of what to do. The 12v battery is ok and charged, the throttle appears to be ok...I just need to get the ICE to fire because I'm confident I can keep it going and getting running fine. I used a battery tester and it all came back ok. Any advice or direction or anything would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks to anyone who can help!
My advice is that you perform the necessary maintenance on your Prius so that it will be reliable and you don't have to jump the battery constantly, leave the heater on in an effort to force the engine to run, etc. You should not embark on a winter road trip with a car in such poor condition. This could become very hazardous to your personal safety if the car is stalled in a dangerous area. 1. Replace the 12V battery. Stop messing around with a near-dead battery. The various Prius ECUs require clean power. Who knows what glitches have been introduced by your many efforts to jumpstart and charge the battery (I assume that you have not disconnected the battery cables before charging.) When replacing the battery, allow all ECUs to power down. Do not connect an auxiliary power source in an effort to keep ECU memory alive. 2. Buy a can of throttle body cleaner. Remove the air cleaner assembly and clean off the black gunk in the interior of the throttle body and on the throttle plate. Rotate the spring-loaded shaft to view the underside of the throttle plate. Use the minimum liquid necessary to do the cleaning. When you are done you should see shiny metal parts. If it is too much effort to remove the air cleaner assembly, make sure that you do not contaminate the mass air flow sensor with the cleaner liquid. 3. Check engine oil viscosity (which should be 5W-30) and fill level (which should not exceed top dimple on dipstick). 4. If you still have problems with the engine failing to start, replace the iridium spark plugs if they have more than 60K miles. Buy the correct NGK or Denso plugs as specified in the owner's manual which should cost ~$50-$60 for four plugs at your Toyota dealer. Look at the engine air filter and replace if you don't see light when you hold the filter up to the sun. 5. If you still have problems, find the engine ECU located behind the glove box and determine the part number. If lower than 89661-47054, buy that part number from a salvage yard, might cost you $300 or so. 6. Check fuel pressure which should be 43 psi at idle speed (assuming you can get the engine to start.) If low, remove the circuit opening relay, apply 12VDC to the coil terminals, and measure resistance across the switched terminals, using a digital multimeter. Replace the relay if resistance is greater than 0.5 ohm. If fuel pressure is still low, replace the fuel tank. For more info, do a search for TSB EG011-03 which I previously posted.
Thanks! This is some great info to get me going. I did some light cleaning of the throttle plate already. I was going to replace the battery next week (talk about timing). But thanks again. I'll be sure to post any resolution i get!
Ok, i just put in a new 12v battery...and still the same problem. Combustion engine tries to start but fails after about 2 seconds, won't start. Cleaned the throttle also. I don't have the owners manual so I don't have a reference for the spark plugs... Still trying to figure it out...
I just went to try and start it again, after letting it sit for a while and now it doesn't even try starting the engine. Lights/dash come on and then the "Main" light flashes...Pretty sure this car just died out on me...
Lights/dash come on and then the "Main" light flashes Try to get the engine code(s) read , some auto places eg Autozone will read trouble codes for free; and report back, that should help isolate the cause.
You are right, the presence of that icon on the MFD means that the traction battery has died. Maybe this is because the battery was drained after numerous attempts to spin the gasoline engine. The car probably still has the underlying problem that causes the engine to exhibit no-start issues. How many miles on the odometer? How much fuel is in the gas tank? For future reference in case you get that far, the correct iridium spark plug is NGK IFR5A11 or Denso SK16R11. At this point, you'll probably need to tow the car to your local Toyota dealer for assistance. Note that a new battery will cost ~$3K including labor time. I am assuming that a project to DIY install a replacement salvage battery would not be of interest to you. If I am wrong, do a search on that topic for recent examples of such work.
Thanks for the info on the plugs. The car's about ~ 130k and over half a tank of gas... I've also heard that the main battery's can be recharged (assuming the dealership has a the equipment). THe nearest toyota dealer is about 50miles away so I'm towing it to a local shop to get the diagnostic read and see if he can identify the problem.
How would i get the codes read/how to get to them? Order a scangauge from priuschat website, glad I did. Everyone should have one of these driving a prius, the car is sorely lacking in gauges. PriusChat Shop : ScanGauge II Scan Tool + Digital Gauges + Trip Computers [ScanGaugeII] - $159.95 There is always next time, and this may help others, understand you are probably in a hurry to get your car fixed.
Patrick is right on the money with the ideas like spark plugs, throttle body and new 12v battery. :thumb: My car runs 100% better after new plugs and throttle body cleaning. One thing I learned painfully (expense + stress) is that the Gen 1 software "protects" the car by not allowing the engine to start when the main traction battery is low. I was able to to charge the traction battery (after I had a fresh 12V batt) by running the engine with the a/c on max, with the factory scan tool plugged into the car watching the battery ecu / live data. The factory scan tool also has a feature to charge the traction battery, but I have never used it, nor know how to use that feature. Hope that info helps. I seriously doubt most main traction batteries that are replaced are really all bad. The factory scan tool allows you to monitor every cell in the battey and get a feel for the condition. There is also a comparison between the best and worst cell which is used to determine overall condition. How many Toyota techs know or are willing to share that information?
